The Fine Print
High Seas Fine Print

The Titanic was worth $91,805: who got paid after she sank

Less than six months after the Titanic sank, the White Star Line swore to a federal court in New York that the ship was worth $91,805.54: fourteen lifeboats, a little freight, and the fares her passengers had already paid.

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In this story

  1. 0:00Worth $91,805
  2. 1:23The moment a ship goes down
  3. 2:10The band
  4. 4:22Southampton
  5. 5:22Lifeboats and tickets
  6. 6:21The claims
  7. 7:34The ticket
  8. 9:23The trial in London
  9. 11:37No absurdity
  10. 12:11Four cents and a consent
  11. 13:47The law is still there
  12. 14:13The two who didn't sign

Sources

Sources

  • In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, Admiralty Case File A55-279, US District Court, Southern District of New York, National Archives at New York (the petition, the commissioner's report, the claims of Charlotte Cardeza, William Carter, Yum Hee, James Veale and Andrew Hume, the depositions of Elizabeth Lines and J. Bruce Ismay, the final decree of 28 July 1916); Titanic Disaster: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, US Senate, Senate Document 726 (1912); Ryan v. Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. [1914] 3 KB 731; Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Mellor, 233 U.S. 718 (1914); Brailey v. Black, Law Times vol. 134 (1912); the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (legislation.gov.uk, Open Government Licence); the Act of 3 March 1851 (US Statutes at Large); Walter Lord, The Night Lives On (1986); Encyclopedia Titanica.

Film

  • Gaumont newsreel, 1912; NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Titanic wreck, 2004; In Nacht und Eis (1912), a German film of the sinking; Cunard vessel at Liverpool, about 1901; ocean liners, 1920s; Edison, Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island (1903) and New York Police Parade (1899), Library of Congress; US Coast Guard and NTSB, the Key Bridge, 2024.

Pictures

  • Library of Congress (Bain News Service, Harris & Ewing, Detroit Publishing, stereographs and photochroms); National Archives; Vanity Fair. Credit under a free licence: White Star's London office, Leonard Bentley, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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